Capítulo 396: Chapter 514 — The Celestial Emperor City
Chapter 514 — The Celestial Emperor City
The entrance to the Ice–Fire Secret Realm lay to the north of Seven Kings City—barely a million li away.
For ordinary travelers, that distance was unfathomable. But for saints, who traversed the heavens with a single thought, it was scarcely the length of a breath.
Before long, streaks of divine light converged upon a magnificent canyon—its cliffs sheer as blades, its streams glimring like ribbons of silver.
Before the mouth of the gorge, countless cultivators had already gathered.
So sat cross-legged in ditation, eyes closed to preserve their spirit.
Others stood in groups, murmuring low, exchanging intelligence or forming uneasy alliances.
The air itself seed heavy with tension and ambition—a thousand dreams of glory pressing against the confines of one narrow space.
Fang Luo and his two brothers arrived quietly and slipped into the midst of the crowd. To the casual eye, they appeared no different from any other group of companions—unremarkable, perhaps even friendly. Yet beneath that calm surface, each step they took was deliberate, every breath controlled.
Illusion was its own form of armor.
Not long after, a new group approached—the underlings of Xiang Zhantian, the infamous young master whose arrogance was said to rival his cruelty.
When his followers saw the Fang brothers seemingly surrounded by allies, they hesitated, whispering nervously among themselves.
“Brother Tian, those three seem to have gathered quite a few friends,”
one murmured when their master finally arrived.
“We didn’t dare to act rashly.”
Xiang Zhantian cast a disdainful glance toward the crowd. His lips curled into a sneer.
“Fools. They’re pretending. Can’t you see? There’s not a single soul here who’d risk their life for them.”
The lackey’s face flushed with sha.
“Then should we strike now?”
Xiang Zhantian’s fingers flexed around the hilt of his blade. For a heartbeat, murder flickered in his eyes.
He longed to spill their blood here and now—to erase the humiliation his family had suffered at their hands.
But this was the entrance to the Ice–Fire Secret Realm. All around stood the cream of the Tianyuan Realm’s Saint ranks—scions of great clans, heirs to ancient legacies.
Even the Seven Kings themselves tread carefully in such company.
Killing here would not rely be reckless—it would be suicide.
“No,” he finally said, forcing the words through clenched teeth.
“We wait until we’re inside. There, no rules bind us.”
He had already arranged everything. Within the secret realm, several of his peers—sons of other great houses of Seven Kings City—would assist him. Whether alive or dead, the Fang brothers would not walk back out.
But if Xiang Zhantian imagined his prey cowed, he could not have been more wrong.
The three Fang brothers had walked through blood and chaos in every continent beneath the heavens. They had faced demonic sects, heretic emperors, and forbidden tombs where even saints had perished.
To them, this was not a trap—it was an opportunity.
An arena where strength would speak unrestrained, and vengeance could be ted out in full.
They were not afraid. In truth, their blood thrumd with anticipation.
A sudden rumble shook the canyon.
Dozens of gazes turned as a procession appeared from the sky—dazzling, resplendent, and suffused with power.
From the west ca an ancient chariot wreathed in killing aura, drawn by four golden warbeasts whose steps made the void tremble.
From the east rode a young man astride a colossal drake whose scales shimred with lightning.
Others descended on clouds of spirit light, or walked upon blades of condensed qi.
Each carried themselves with the grace of a god descended, their every motion radiating nobility.
“Tch—so that’s the arrogance of the hegemon-tier prodigies,” soone murmured in awe.
“Even their entrances are theatrical.”
The crowd rippled with whispers.
“Look! The Archaic Divine Families have sent their scions—Nie Zhe of the Nie Clan, and Pei Haoran of the Pei Clan!”
“The Fourth Prince of the Tianhui Imperial Court—his golden dragon of fortune has already taken form! He’s destined for the throne!”
“And the goddess of Wangyue Tower, Yan Shishi—she’s even more stunning than the rumors said!”
“But the ones who truly outshine all others… the Fang Clan’s twin Celestial Physiques. This will be their first appearance before the world. Let us see whether those legends are true.”
The air trembled with excitent.
All twenty of the realm’s overlord powers had sent their champions. So were peerless geniuses; others, re representatives. But here, in Seven Kings’ own territory, none could ignore the oppressive might of the local powers.
The cultivators of Seven Kings City stood clustered at the forefront—a wall of spiritual pressure that bent the air around them.
Even the most arrogant wanderers from distant continents hesitated before stepping too close.
At their head stood Wu Xingyun, eldest grandson of the Inner City’s Martial King—a figure of effortless authority and lethal calm.
Just behind him, in the second row, was Xiang Zhantian, his sharp features twisted into a smirk as he cast another look toward the Fang brothers.
But beyond the forces of Seven Kings, another presence lood—quiet, dignified, and no less awe-inspiring.
Fang Luo gestured subtly toward a group robed in austere gold and white.
“Those cultivators,” he murmured to his brothers, “are from the Celestial Emperor City.”
Fang Chen and Fang Qiufeng exchanged glances. They had heard of that na—a city that once stood unrivaled in all the Tianyuan Realm, its founder none other than a true Heavenly Emperor.
In the age when that emperor still lived, Celestial Emperor City had been the heart of the world, its will law, its word decree.
Though the emperor had long ascended beyond mortal reach, the city endured.
And while its glory had dimd, its foundation remained deeper than mountains and older than empires.
Fang Luo’s voice softened.
“After our master broke through to the Emperor Realm, he spent most of his years there. The Great Zhou Princess, Jiang Hongye, is likely still within the city as well.”
Their thoughts drifted to the past—to Elder Wang, the lord of the Divine Palace, who had once guided them through their youth. He had reached the pinnacle of the Saint King Realm before vanishing into seclusion.
Now, he too was an Emperor, dwelling within that celestial citadel.
For those who did not belong to the twenty hegemon powers, Celestial Emperor City was sanctuary—a neutral ground for wandering saints and free cultivators.
In other territories, stepping uninvited onto another sect’s domain was tantamount to declaring war.
But in Celestial Emperor City, strength was the only passport.
And for the emperors who resided there, life was tranquil.
They cultivated in the divine grottoes that hung suspended above the clouds, their abodes nourished by heavenly veins of pure spirit qi—luxuries even the richest clans could scarcely afford.
Fang Luo smiled faintly.
“We could have chosen that path,” he said, almost wistfully. “But Celestial Emperor City is a place of peace. We ca instead to Seven Kings—the den of wolves. Here, every day is a battle. And in battle, we grow.”
Fang Chen nodded in quiet agreent.
The Fang Clan’s blood had always run toward conflict. Their ancestors were slayers of bandits and demons alike; it was in strife that their lineage found its edge.
As noon approached, a figure in silver armor strode to the forefront—the Grand Marshal of the Seven Kings’ City Guard.
From his hands, he raised a token engraved with intricate sigils.
Chanting a series of profound incantations, he hurled it into the depths of the gorge.
A thunderous roar answered him.
“Boom!”
The air split apart as the token ignited, opening a gate of blinding light deep within the canyon.
A storm of astral wind burst outward, slicing the stone and scattering dust into the heavens.
Even a Saint of lower rank would have been torn apart in an instant.
“Move!” shouted Wu Xingyun.
His hands flared with light, and a do of true essence ford around his followers.
One by one, the cultivators of Seven Kings City rose into the air and plunged into the rift.
Then ca the rest—the prodigies of the divine clans, the heirs of the imperial courts, the disciples of immortal sects—each cloaked in radiance as they vanished into the gate.
Among them, unnoticed in the surge, were the three Fang brothers.
They did not so much as glance at Fang Mu Ge or Fang Ying, who entered separately.
To any onlooker, they were strangers—just more souls among the thousand destined to test their fate.
Beyond the gorge, light gave way to fla and frost, and the world itself seed to split in two.
The Ice–Fire Secret Realm had opened.
Reviews
All reviews (0)